The Old Dylan
by MarcoLover16
Summary: Kinda different story...than anything I've ever written or read. It's about Paige and Dylan's relationship before and after he came out.


A/N: I wanted to try a little something different. So, this is basically like…Paige's acceptance of who Dylan is. As I said, it's a little different, so I don't know how popular it'll be, but I hope I get some reviews, anyway. :) Oh, and if there's any confusion, it's the end of the year. Dylan's ending eighth grade, so he just turned fourteen. Paige is ending sixth grade and is eleven going on twelve, (I know that Paige's birthday is like…in the beginning of the year, like September or October, so I did it this way, so that she turns twelve at the beginning of seventh.) There! I hope that clears everything up for you! I hope you enjoy!

"I just don't get it, Dyl. I thought you liked her,"

"Well, I guess you were wrong," he sighed, "Look, I'm a little tired. I'm going to go rest, so call me for dinner,"

"Dylan!" Her answer was a door slammed in her face.

Paige walked into the kitchen where she found her mother sitting down at the table, a cup of coffee in one hand, a book in the other. Paige sat down across from her.

"Hi, sweetie," said her mother without even glancing up.

"Hi," she said slowly, putting her face in her hands.

"Something wrong, angel?"

Paige tried to smile convincingly, and act like nothing was wrong, but she couldn't. She didn't know what to tell her mother, so she settled for, "Dylan never calls me that anymore. Don't you remember when we were little, you'd call me angel, and he'd repeat it? Maybe I've turned into the devil or something…maybe he did,"

Her mom laughed, putting her book down, "Oh? I don't really know where this is coming from,"

"Brothers and sister don't get along. I know that. Dylan and I argue all the time, but lately…it's different. He's so secretive. Did you know he broke up with his girlfriend?"

She choked on her coffee, grabbing a napkin from the counter behind her, "I never knew he HAD a girlfriend. Talk about secretive,"

"What happened!" she cried.

"Paige," she hugged her daughter closely, "You're way way too dramatic," she said softly, "Now, understand that your brother is in eighth grade. In fact, in two weeks, he'll be done with it,"

"What's your point?"

"He's older than you, sweetie. As he grows up, he'll want to keep things a little more private. Don't worry, though, it might be just a phase that you will go through too. There may come a time where you share everything…well, not everything, again. That's just how it is,"

Paige nodded. "As for Dylan," she went on, "I'll make sure if he wants his business private, he'd better let yours be private as well, and stays the hell out of it,"

"Okay," she laughed.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

The truth was, Dylan had been having some minor issues in his life. He didn't even like to call them issues. They were more like complications. He didn't need to bring his little sister into every single one! He was fine! As for the girlfriend, well…she wasn't his type. Plus, she was obsessive. He didn't find it quite so flattering when girls wanted to carve his name into their arm.

Oddly, it had happened more than once.

Dylan simply broke up with her by saying the "connection" was gone, which it was. So, it wasn't totally a lie. He had finally admitted it to himself; he was gay.

Not that he had any problem with it! No, in fact, a part of his quite liked the discovery. Dylan never truly understood why anyone had a problem with it. The problem was how to tell the family.

He doubted very much that his mother would be angry. His father probably couldn't care less either, but to get him on the phone was murder. (Considering, he lived a few towns away…it might be better to tell him in person)

Paige, though, was a problem. She was eleven years old and, although she knew that gaymale/male, female/female, the topic was quite confusing to her, really, especially at the age of eleven, (she liked to say she was 'going on twelve'). Hell, I barely knew much about it! I just simply didn't need her fretting over it.

Maybe, though, it could help our relationship. We could, after all, talk about guys together. Maybe our relationship would completely fail? Who would know! He had no clue about her feelings on homosexuality.

No matter what, though, he had to tell.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Mom?"

"Oh, I was just going to send Paige to get you. We're eating, hon,"

"Okay,"

He sat down at the table with her. Her smile faded, however, when she looked in his eyes. "Dylan, is there somethi—"

"Fine, nobody tell me we're eating," Paige shouted, announcing her presence.

Dylan rolled his eyes, "Paige! We're eating!" he yelled.

"Dylan!"

"Don't even start," their mother yelled. "We don't need this at the dinner table. Please, you two, just eat,"

Dylan didn't really feel much like eating. He knew what he had to do, and he was sort of prepared, but nervous nonetheless. He barely touched the meat, and pushed around the corn with his fork, frowning.

"Mel's mad at me," he said seemingly out of the blue.

"Well, of course she is," Paige interjected, "You randomly broke up with her,"

"It wasn't random! And I believe I was talking to mom!"

"I'm sorry! I wasn't aware," she crossed her arms over her chest.

"May I know why you are your girlfriend broke up even if I can't know how you got together?"

Dylan sighed, "Mom, there's something I want to talk to you about," he said confidently as he breathed slowly in and out.

"Anything, sweetie. What is it?"

Paige eagerly listened in. Dylan didn't even bother to shoo her from the room. He figured she might as well listen. He'd be killing two birds with one stone that way.

"I didn't like Melissa," he sighed. Well, this was shaping up to be a great start.

"Well, that's okay, there'll be other fish in the sea, of course," she smiled encouragingly over at her son as she began to eat again.

"No, there probably won't. I mean, how many of my type are out there,"

"Fish?" Paige asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No…I'm not…talking about girls anymore," He was suddenly gaining his confidence. Maybe coming out of the closet wasn't so difficult.

Paige smirked, "You really do want to date fish, then?"

"Paige! For god's sake! I'm GAY!" He yelled…well, a lot louder than he'd wished. He hoped the neighbors…and all the people around Canada, for that matter, weren't homophobes. They'd definitely heard that outburst.

"Well, Dylan…I'm…we're quite glad you told us this. See, Paige, now you know what's going on in his head,"

"Yeah," she murmured as she walked back to her room, "I definitely do,"

…………………………………………………………………………………..

Good news: Mom's fine with it. She even keeps trying to "check in" to see how Dylan's doing.

Bad news: It had been two days and he'd hardly heard a word from Paige. He didn't understand it …he never thought she'd be angry with him for this, was she?

"Dylan," said his mom as she knocked loudly on my door. "It's time for school! Get up!"

"Mother," he said irritated, "It's the last day, can't I just not go?"

"Dylan, it's the last day, that's right, get your butt up and on the bus to school."

He groaned, "Fine, I'm coming, I'm coming,"

Traditionally, every single year, on the last day of school, Dylan and Paige would walk home and on the way, would go see how much candy they could buy at the one closest to their home. It was a tradition of theirs; one that, surprisingly, their mother knew nothing of. In all actuality, Dylan believed their mother had actually discovered early on, but never said anything to stop it. Dylan never told Paige this because it would spoil her fun.

He wasn't so sure if this tradition would be going another year. After all, if Paige wasn't speaking to him, it wouldn't be too wonderful, would it?

Dylan passed by Paige's normal "waiting" spot for him. He considered actually waiting there for her, but decided it wasn't worth it. She probably had no interest in him right now anyway. He sighed, but decided he's go on there without her.

"Wait!" She yelled at his retreating back.

He turned around, surprised that she actually wanted to be around him at the moment.

She finally caught up with him, resting her arm on his shoulder as she caught her breath. "Now, where the hell do you think you're going?"

Dylan smiled, "I could never forget, Paige. Come on,"

Paige had done a lot of thinking over the day in school. Summer was about to start and in September, Dylan would be going off to High School. Their mother was right. He was getting older. As much as the thought made her happy, (only a few more years with the guy!) it saddened her to know that he was growing up. It frightened her to know that he was changing.

Then, add onto the plate, he was gay? When did that happen? She pondered the thought after finding out about her "new brother".

The bottom line was, she didn't want to make room for a new Dylan. There WAS no room for a new Dylan. Actually, the bottom line really was, she didn't want to give up the old Dylan.

Though, when she got in the store, and begged for Dylan to buy her some more with his money, she realized something. Last year they did the same thing. The year before and the year before and the year before, so on, they did the same thing. They walked to the same store and bought her…well, pretty much the same candy! They had the same routine too.

He would tell her what she could buy, he would buy as much as he wanted as well. Then, she would beg for more, of course, and he would buy it anyways, even though he said after every time, that he would never go over his price again, but he always did. He fought with her all the time, but still spoiled her to death. As much as he dreaded to admit it, he loved her, and she loved him.

It took her a long time to realize this, but he was still the same guy.

As they walked out of the store tiredly, they were two houses away from their one, Paige stopped him suddenly.

"What?" he asked, confused.

She smiled, "Dylan, you're…I'm glad you're still the same,"

Dylan then did something he hadn't done since they were under the age of five. He picked her up and hugged her tightly, spinning her in the air as he did so. She laughed, of course, as she yelled for him to put her down.

He smiled more brightly than she'd ever seen. "I'm glad you know that, Paige,"


End file.
